Citizenship and Immigration Canada targets to admit 55,300 persons in the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) category in 2013 according this latest news release. It could translate to 20,000 new applications to be accepted for the year 2013 for this program. The final regulatory changes will be available in the Canada Gazette later this year.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) announced today it will admit up to 55,300 persons in the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) category in 2013. Combined with previous actions taken to manage the backlog, this means by the end of 2013 we will be able to process new applications as they are received – a “just in time” system – and aim to process them in less than a year, instead of up to eight years under the old FSW program. In addition, CIC expects to clear the FSW applications received to date by the end of 2014, three years earlier than originally expected.
This will allow for the introduction of an Expression of Interest (EOI) system to be put in place for FSW and possibly other economic immigration streams. CIC is moving to a just-in-time system that recruits people with the right skills to meet Canada’s labour market needs, fast tracks their applications, and gets them working in a period of months, instead of years. [Source]

It looks like that by 2015, Canada's immigration program would be just like the Australia's immigration program, which uses Expression of Interest (EOI) system.

This may be good and bad depending in your circumstances. That is why if you are eligible today, you should waste no time. Apply now!